USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, Illinois : a tale of its evolution, settlement and progress for nearly a century, Volume I > Part 51
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The surface of this township is undulating, or gently rolling, in the central part. In the south and southwest portions the tendency is to flatten out and be- come too level. Along the eastern edge we have the brakes of the Middle Fork. There is a high portion of the township which is known as California Ridge. It is the water-shed between the waters of the Salt and Middle Forks. It is excep- tionally high ground for this country, and has on it some of the most desirable farms in the state of Illinois. Nearly all of the land is prairie. There is some timber on the eastern side along the Middle Fork, though not much of the Middle Fork timber extends into Pilot townshp, and there is a small grove near the center of the township known as Pilot Grove. This point of timber, away out in the prairie, away from any stream, and on the highest portions of land in the country, very naturally attracted the attention of early settlers. It was called Pilot on account of its peculiar situation, this rendering it a kind of guide-a kind of beacon-light to the explorers of the prairie. The township derived its name from this grove. There are no streams in Pilot of importance, with the ex- ception of Middle Fork, which skirts the edge on the east, now in and now with- out the limits of the township. The head waters of Stony Creek take their rise in the western part, and there is a small stream flowing into Middle Fork from the northeastern part, called Knight's Branch. But water is furnished by good wells in a sufficient quantity for man and beast, and is elevated to the sur- face by the power of the wind, which in this country has free scope, and is almost constantly blowing.
There is no village within the borders of Pilot. It has one postoffice and store, but a village has not been laid out. It is entirely devoted to agricultural interests, and these are well represented. The soil is black, deep and fertile. In some places it is necessary to drain in order to secure good results, but there is a greater portion of this township that will yield good crops without drainage than of any other. perhaps, in the county. Corn, wheat, oats, flax and grass are the principal products. Cattle and hogs are grown in vast numbers. There is more than the usual amount of grazing and cattle-growing. Sheep are kept quite extensively by a few, and they report the business successful. It is said to be the best paying business that can be followed in this country. Very little of the vast acres of corn
SCENE IN PILOT GROVE TOWNSHIP
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SCENE IN PILOT GROVE TOWNSHIP
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are shipped. It is generally bought up by cattle-feeders in the neighborhood. A good thing in Pilot is the herd law. People fence in their stock instead of their grain. This they found easier and less expensive. Vast areas of corn and other grain may be seen growing by the roadside, with nothing in the shape of a fence anywhere in sight. Pilot, like some other portions of West Vermilion, suffers socially from a number of large land-owners. When this country began to settle up, men who realized the importance of the movement strove to get possession of large areas, that they might have the advantage of the rise in value. The prairies of Pilot offered as attractive farms as any in the country, and accordingly we find here a number of farms, each of which includes vast areas. These would not have been as detrimental to the best interests of the community, had the owners been able, in every case, to improve them and keep them up with the progress of the times.
The points for early settlement were two-the timber of Middle Fork and Pilot Grove. Accordingly, we find settlements made at the places at quite an early date. The first white settler within the limits of this township is not now positively known. So many conflicting stories reach the ear that one cannot posi- tively affirm that such were actually the first persons within certain limits. It is probable that James McGee was the first man in here. He came, as near as can now be ascertained, in 1824 or 1825. The McGees ( for there were a number of them afterward) remained in the neighborhood for a long time, but finally moved away. Mr. Griffith, we are told by some, came before this man. Griffith was in what is now Oakwood township, but just on the edge, and in the same neighbor- hood. In 1827 Morgan Rees and the Juvinalls came into the township and set- tled on the Middle Fork, above where the others had stopped. Morgan Rees is still living in Blount township, but on the west side of the creek, near where he settled fifty-two years ago. He has been most of his time right here, and is, per- haps, better acquainted with the history of this part of the county than any other man living. The Juvinalls were well known in this community, all through the years of pioneer life. The old man, father of a number of boys, came with his family at the early date before mentioned. His first name was John, and his sons were Andrew, David James, and John Juvinall, Jr. David and Andrew were married when they came. The children of Andrew still live in the neighboor- hood. But the Juvinalls came from Ohio. The Morrison family came in a little farther up, about the same time. Morrisons were important elements in the neighborhood, but they finally went away. William Trimmell came about the year 1828. He settled in the same neighborhood. There are still a few of the name found in various parts of the county.
ROSS TOWNSHIP.
Ross township is one of the largest and wealthiest in the county. In the origi- nal division of the county Ross township embraced all of the northeast part of the county, more than five congressional towns in all. In 1862 it was divided by a line through the center of it. The North Fork of the Vermillion river runs nearly through its center, from north to south, cutting the northern line a little west of its center, running in a southeasterly direction and leaving it a little east
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of the middle of its southern border, with an eastern branch which is joined to another branch called the Jordon, running from its eastern borders. Bean creek runs through the northwestern portion of the township, in a westerly direction. Numerous small streams and rivulets, fed by living springs, feed these springs, making Ross one of the best watered sections in the county. Along these streams a belt of timber grew, but it has largely been cut off.
The old "Hubbard Trace" ran through Ross township, and later became known as the state road. It was along this road that the first settlements were made. Ross has always been a farming section. The early settlers were the Gundys, Gilberts, Greens, Davisons, Chenoweths, Manns and Chaunceys.
The first man to enter land north of Bicknells Point was Joseph Lockhart, about 1844. Only one man lived between Bicknells Point and the "old red pump" near Milford at that time. Joseph Lockhart came from Harrison County, Kentucky, in 1828, with James Newell.
Ross township took its name from Jacob T. Ross who owned a tract of land in section 9 from which the timbers for the old mill that was built by Clausson on section 5, about 1835, were cut and hewn. He seems to have had an interest in the mill, for he furnished the timbers and afterward became the owner. For a long time it was known as Ross mill and there the early elections and town meetings were held, and very naturally gave name to the town, although there was an effort to call it North Fork. The Davison family, and their relatives, the Gundys, were the first white people to find a home in Ross township, it is sup- posed, although Mr. Horr and Mr. Liggett may have been here a few months earlier.
All settlers hugged the timber hine for the protection from the prairie. Wild game was plenty. Prairie chickens were shot from the roofs of the houses. Wild geese would be in abundance on the prairie in the spring and the fall. Deer were so plenty as to be taken as a matter of course and sheep could hardly be protected from the wolves. Farmers made the trip to Chicago to market their hogs and it took them about a week. Hogs would run in the timber until corn harvesting time and then be collected and fed until they were in light marching order (fat enough that they would not actually run away from the herd) when they were started toward Chicago. It would not do to have had the hogs as fat as they are now, they could never have made the trip. When the hogs were collected, after running in the timber, they were so wild they would not eat and every possible way was tried to make them. Corn was put into the pen when the swine were not there so that the stubborn fellows would not know they were ex- pected to eat. It sometimes became necessary to start the dogs after them to get them out of the timber, and fetch them in one at at time.
When the division of Ross and Grant township was made the village of Ross- ville was on the dividing line between the two townships. This village was at the point where the state road from Danville to Chicago crossed the state road run- ning from Attica, Indiana, to Bloomington, Illinois. The corporate limits of Rossville include what at one time was known as Liggett's Grove on the south and Bicknell's Point on the north. It is eighteen miles from Danville and six from Hoopeston. The North Fork runs about one mile west of it. The land upon which it is built is beautifully rolling, giving natural advantages of land-
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scape, which have made the village unusually attractive. John Liggett gave his name to the locality but his early death made it possible for Alvan Gilbert to become the man to whom the credit of developing the section was given. This point was of unlimited promise until the LaFayette, Bloomington & Mumcie R. R. was built through the northern tier of townships, instead of following as seemed likely, the old traveled road. For a while this village was called Bick- nell's Point and later it was known far and near as Henpeck. How it ever re- ceived this name is not known. Samuel Frazier of Danville, set up the first store in "Henpeck" in 1856 and continued to sell goods for four years. Others located there but it was not until the spring of 1862 that the man who was to develop the village of Rossville, Mr. Alvan Gilbert, arrived. Together with W. J. Henderson this man made the village. Alvan (the successor of Gilbert) and Henning are villages within the limits of Ross township, built on the H. R. & E. R. R. which have had a history differing little if any from that of hundreds of villages in Illi- nois. Alvan is the natural outgrowth of the village of Gilbert. In 1872, a station was established on the Chicago and Danville road a mile south of where Alvan is now located, and called Gilbert, in honor of Mr. Gilbert. A postoffice was estab- lished but it did not bear the name of the station. The village remained known by the name of Gilbert until the railroad passed through and a station was located one mile to the north, and the settlement was transferred to that location. A hard feeling naurally followed to reconcile which the station was named for the same man by giving the given name of Mr. Gilbert thereto. Now, Mr. Gilbert always persisted in the spelling of his given name with an "a" instead of an "i" and so it is there is a difference of opinion to this day between the people who live in the village and the P. O. department as to how letters should be addressed to those living in this postoffice. That a natural independence of thought has been developed by this controversy is without doubt, yet that this very independence might be carried too far there is yet some fear, since there is but one correct way of spelling the word.
NEWELL TOWNSHIP.
Newell township early attracted settlers. These came mostly from Kentucky and Ohio. The LeNeves were the first to come to this section. Later a colony came from the same county in Kentucky. This township gave generously to the Blackhawk war. Two of these commanded companies. They were George Ware and Alexander Bailey. Bailey's company was the largest in Col. Moore's regiment. Of the others who volunteered there were Chas. S. Young, Asa and Alpha Duncan, James Cunningham, Ambrose P. Andrews, Bushro Oliver, Obi- diah LeNeve, John LeNeve, William Current, William G. Blair, Soam Jennings, John Deck, Samuel Swinford, Jacob Eckler, Jeremiah Delay, and John Watson.
The Mormons went into Newell township in 1831 but the year after the church was established and missionary work. They had some converts. Den- mark was one of the earliest established villages in Vermilion County. Seymour Treat went from the Salt works in perhaps 1825 or 1826, and built a mill at this place. A thriving village grew up about it and so promising was it that Denmark was a dangerous rival for the county seat. The promise of a prosperous city was made of little worth all because of the liquor sold. Mr. Harbaugh, who is
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yet living at the age of one hundred and six, gives a word picture of Denmark in 1836 which shows the natural overthrow of its hopes. The village was peopled with a lot of rough characters, whose only amusement was to fight and drink more whiskey. Brawls and street fights were daily occurrences. Religious services were almost completely unknown. Now the only remains of the once flourishing village is one house. A bridge spans the river at the old ford, the farm houses are of modern build and a sense of peace and prosperity makes possible the hospitality of the old time inn. The loneliness of the streets of Myersville is almost a place of the past as is Denmark. True the old mill is yet standing but silent and forsaken it calls the passerby in most pathetic tones of silence. There are one or two of the old buildings left, among them being one which suggests the hospitality of the old time inn. The lonliness of the streets of Myersville is inexpressible. The very atmosphere is filled with memories and suggestions of the life which was there in the thirties, the forties and the following generations for perhaps another decade or more. But all have either moved away or died and been buried in the cemetery. This cemetery is unusually well kept and it seems as though there is the place to look for the names of those who made Myersville the flourishing village of the past. The Gundys, the Davisons, the Henkles, the Wiles, the Kerrs, the Woods, the Andrews, the Carters, and the Barges, all live about Myersville and must all be lying in the Fundy cemetery. As the village was going down people were moving away, and only those who didn't have money enough to get work away, were left, there was much poverty; then it was that record is made of Mr. "Andy" Gundy who was the most generous of men. He cared for these people as though he felt an obligation to do so. Want was unknown, for but a word would make him relieve any distress, and the people grew to expect and look upon this as a natural right.
The branch of the C. & E. I. R. R. was surveyed and built in 1872. This branch intersects the main line at what is now known as Bismarck. Chas. S. Young and Dr. John B. Holloway each gave twenty acres of land for a town site. John Myers added ten acres, reserving the alternate lots and selling the other to the railroad. The village was laid out in the fall of 1872. The first building put up was by Robert Kerr. In this building he had a store and was succeeded by John Leonard and Asa Bushnell. The latter bought out the former and enter into partnership with Francis Gundy,
Newell township is bounded on the north by Ross, on the east by Indiana, on the south by Danville township, and on the west by Blount township. It em- braces all of township 20, range 2, except a strip on the west side three-fourths of a mile wide, but includes about and equal quantity of range 10 on the east. It further comprises all the sections from 19 to 30 inclusive, in township 21, range 2, except the west half of sections 30 and 31, which belong to Blount, making an irregular west boundary with four mediate right angles. It covers an area of about fifty-three sections and is about eight and a half miles from north to south and six miles from east to west. Great quantities of black walnut timber was to be found in this section and was a source of great wealth. Stony and Lick creeks are the principle streams. The North Fork of the Vermilion river winds back and forth along the western border, crossing it half a dozen or more times.
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. When the county was divided into townships the name of Riceland was given to Newell but was changed to the present name because there was another town of that name in the state. At this time Newell township had a third more territory which was lost when, in 1856, Blount township was organized. When the Toledo & Wabash railroad was built its western terminus was the point in Newell township now known as State Line City and Illina. The Great Western was built by another company and had a continuation of the same route to the south- west and the two roads formed a junction here. No wonder the village began to grow. State Line City was laid out in the spring of 1857 by Robert Casement and at the suggestion of A. P. Andrews was given its name. Not long afterward that part on the Illinois side was laid out by Parker Dresser and Edwin Martin and called Illina being a word formed from the first two syllables of Illinois and the last syllable of Indiana. The railroad company put up two engine houses and a passenger station with a large eating house attached. Passengers changed cars and all freight was trans-shipped here. A large region, including the towns of Covington, Perrysville, Eugene, Rossville, Myersville and Marysville shipped and received freight at this point. About forty railroad hands were employed. Some time during the season John Briar and A. P., Andrews, under the firm name of Briar & Andrews, built a general merchandise establishment. These early years of State Line City and Illina record the names of Perrin Kent and his son, William, Col. E. F. Lucas, Harvey Barkley, Dr. Porter, Robert Craig, and John Ludlow, Prof. Elbridge Marshall established a manual training school by soliciting subscriptions and issuing stock certificates entitling the holder to tuition for the amount subscribed. He bought ten acres of land and put up a two story build- ing, 40 by 42 feet, in dimensions at a cost of $4,000. This institution was named Evens Union College. Prof. Marshall was a good instructor, and he managed the school well and until he severed his connection with it there was no com- plaint to be made concerning it. In 1864 he was succeeded by Prof. Asa D. Goodwin as principal all through the influence of John H. Braiden. These changes became the fruitful source of sectarian dissension and the prosperity of the school rapidly decreased. Two or three years afterward the trustees of Kent township bought the house for $2,700. It was later used for a public school
In June, 1865, the railroad house and passenger house were burned and the two roads having been consolidated, the engine house was moved to Danville. The town suffered for this and perhaps yet more from the building of other railroads, which cut off territory tributary to it, and its decline was rapid and steady. A postoffice was once established at Walnut corners, which is thought to have been the first in Newell township. Ambrose P. Andrews was the first post- master. Another postoffice was established at Myers Mill probably about 1854. Yet another, called Kentucky, was first located opposite Pleasant View Church, and was kept by Mordecai Wells, a blind man who had a little store at that place. He held it but a short time when Squire Phillip Leonard became the post- master, and kept the office for above twenty years.
Blount township was a part of both Pilot and Newell townships when the county was first divided by township organization. The two streams, North Fork and Middle Fork formed barriers to interchange of neighborly duties and the transaction of business and in 1856 the supervisors determined upon a further
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division. This name given to the new township was Fremont, because of admir- ation of the dashing general by that name, but did not prove acceptable to all and some one remembered the kind old man by name of Blount who lived in this sec- tion when the county was young and his name satisfied everyone. The lines which form the eastern and western borders of Blount township are quite irregular but follow as nearly as possible within hailing distance of a creek. It contains terri- tory a little more than a congressional township and a half. The surface of the township is higher in the middle and north where the prairie lies and was covered in the southern half and along its eastern and western boundaries with a stalwart growth of forest trees of oak, walnut, maples and here and there a beech tree. These trees are almost all destroyed. There has been a wicked destruction of the forest trees in Vermilion county during the past thirty years. There is a famous spring in Blount township where there has been an effort to establish a health re- sort under the name of Henrietta Springs. It was at this spring that the Indians spent much of their time when the white men came to this section. Samuel Cope- land was the first settler of Blount township. The first schoolhouse in the town- ship was the old log school a mile east of Mr. Copeland's house. John Skinner was the first teacher. The first preaching in the township was by the Rev. McKain at the home of John Johns. The Fairchild family came to Blount township in 1828. It was in 1834 or 1835 that Mr. Blount sold out and went to Wisconsin, attracted by the lead mines. There were a number of people who went at the some time. Hunting was the principle business of that time. Sickness was the rule and ague, milk sickness and fevers of all kinds kept the people broken in spirit, and sapped their strength, and energy.
Higginsville or Vermilion Rapids as it was called in the plat taken to the eastern capitalists in 1836, as yet exists but entirely shorn of its glory. No one could guess the beautiful city as represented to the would-be-purchaser of lots at this head of navigation of the Vermilion river, was the poor and almost de- serted hamlet now standing on the Middle Fork in Blount township. Salem was another prospective city which never was much more than on paper. Mr. Oxley laid out the village and there was a store and a tannery as well as a doctor at this little village as early as 1837. This township has plenty of coal to gather but better facilities to raise it must be secured, before the attempt to market it will be made.
CATLIN TOWNSHIP.
Catlin township contains historic ground. It was near within the limits of this township that the first settlement was made at the salt springs in 1819, and but a short distance from there and within the township Butler's Point was settled. This township is bounded on the north by Oakwood and Danville townships, on the east by Danville and Georgetown townships, west by Vance, by Georgetown and Car- roll townships. This township was named Catlin because of that name having been given to the village on the Wabash railroad. Until the time of the coming of the railroad the village which lay to the west, a short distance was called But- ler's Point. but when a station was made, where the town is now located, trade and residences drifted to the better facilities, and Butler's Point was lost in Cat- lin. This village was named Catlin on account of that being the name of one of
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officers of the Wabash railroad. Catlin township contains teritory, all told, which is more than a full Congressional township and a quarter. The Salt Fork of the Vermilion river runs along the northern border of this township, and orig- inally had a belt of fine timber along its bank of a mile to a mile and a half in width. The points made by these elbows of timber extending out in the prairie, were great attraction to the early settlers who were afraid to venture out on the open plain. The chief of these points was the one upon which James Butler set- tled and was known as Butler's Point All evidence of a settlement at Butler's Point has disappeared and so also has the timber which skirted the banks of the old Salt Fork.
. Catlin township was laid off from Carroll, Vance, Danville and Georgetown townships in 1858. This was after the Wabash railroad had been built for some time and the station of Catlin located and built. Along the southern line of Cat- lin township there is a ridge which separates the drainage of the Salt Fork and the Little Vermilion rivers. This elevation makes the water shed of the town- ship toward the Salt Fork, all excepting a small portion in the extreme southern part. The Wabash railroad, going through the township, turned the attention of eastern capitalists in this direction, and settlers were forced to go further south to get cheap land. As early as 1850 all the land north of the railroad had been brought into cultivation and by 1858, all the land southwest of the station was taken and made into farms.
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